


Lost in Transfer

by Palmtree_Panicking



Category: Super Smash Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Existential Crisis, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Rescue Missions, Super Smash Bros. (Nintendo 64 Game), a little bit of action, and they're self-aware, except for one, just one but you know the deal, there's a human OC but they're not important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-25 21:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20918717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palmtree_Panicking/pseuds/Palmtree_Panicking
Summary: Early 2001. A child, one of many, receives Super Smash Brothers for the Nintendo 64.In the game, all the characters battle. In the memory card, they meet together and relax until the console calls again.Except for one.





	Lost in Transfer

**Author's Note:**

> 29-12-19 -- edit: cleaned-up for future reference.

* * *

A group of four, on the rooftop of a castle, fight to the death.

“Hyah!” A swing of a sword and the impact sends one flying. A pink, strangely-round creature cries out as it flies higher and higher into the sky, disappearing in an instant. 

A scatter; the sword-wielder is knocked off his feet. A hat-wearing child’s yo-yo rolls past him, its string tangled between his boots.

“Ah! Are you okay?!” The kid starts running to him. “I’m so sorry, I was just—“

A warrior clad in orange suddenly leaps into the air, shooting a missile. It tears into the ground, tiles flying off the roof of the castle. The bounty hunter perches on a platform above, eyes trained on the sword wielder below—

The kid watches, rendered speechless _ and _distracted, as a large explosion sends Link flying.

(...”Link”?)

Suddenly, they’re backhanded by the warrior, stumbling to the ground. Their foot slips off a tile, which breaks apart as it tumbles off the roof. In a panic, the child starts scattering backwards — the bounty hunter slowly advances, a predator toying with its prey.

“W-wait, no-no-no!“ A loose spark of psychic energy. “I— I don’t think I’m supposed to be here, I—“

A missile jams itself into the ground next to Ness.

His heart gets caught in his throat, as he quickly rolls away from the missile— _ Ka-blam! _And he gets to his feet, and there’s a platform above—

“Gaah—!” His arm flares up, a bullet scraping by. Ness falls back, ignoring the sheering pain — _ who is this person?! —, _before using most of his psychic energy to launch into the sky. The orange-clad stranger stands still, watching as the boy trips onto a platform jutting out of the castle’s upper chambers.

Ness feels his throat dry up, and gulps. He tries to stand tall on the surface below him. There’s a dull throb in his right arm. His baseball bat clatters out of his hands (_ wait that wasn’t there when was I holding that) _and onto the castle roof below.

The bounty hunter silently aims, and shoots.

(As Ness flies, he sees a screen in place of a fourth wall.)

_ “GAME!”_

* * *

A beaming face. A controller in hand.

“I won!” The child shouts, throwing the controller in the air as Samus stoically struts on-screen. They quickly mash the A Button, going through the victory screen and results at lightspeed.

The other participants of the match applaud in the background, cheering the winner on, yet as the kid blazes through they fail to notice the missing fourth participant.

One final button press, and it's back to the main menu for some more smashing fun.

“Alex, come on! We’re going to be late!” Their father’s voice suddenly calls out from downstairs. 

The child understandably groans. “Just a minute!” They quickly flick the N64’s power button off. They throw their controller down, grabbing their school bag and getting to their feet.

As soon as the front door to the house closes, the sound of the lock clicking echoing through the empty hallways, the light on the Nintendo 64 flickers back on.

* * *

Mario is there to welcome back the gang after a long fight. “That was the most exciting fight we’ve had so far!”

Deep inside the inner workings of the console’s slot A memory card, a group of characters gather together inside a strangely-malformed void, full of the colour purple and polygonal-looking shapes. 

Link shrugs, a sheepish smile on his face as he takes a seat on a sharp-looking beanbag. Kirby sits in his arms, cheering as he holds up custom medals for the runner-ups, courtesy of the Italian plumber himself. “Poyo-poy!”

Fox appears out of nowhere, joining the others in the peculiar-shaped void of cubes and loosely-modelled spheres surrounding them all. “Not to be a bother, but… Ness didn’t appear on the victory screen again.”

Mario sighs, adjusting his cap. “Well, we can’t be too harsh on him. Alex just unlocked him a few days ago.”

“And he’s never spawned_ here _, either! It’s as if he doesn’t even exist!”

Link gives Fox the side-eye. Samus comes into view, materialising from low-polygonal shapes right next to the Hyrulian. “As Mario said, Fox, he’s new. Give him a little more time.” She collapses into another beanbag that just so happened to spawn, Kirby giving her a little wave.

“I know, but—!” The space-farer bites his lip. His right ear flicks. “It’s just… he’s a _ little _ bit off. Heck, _ Luigi _ wasn’t even that uptight when Alex first unlocked him.”

As if on cue. Luigi pokes his head out of a rift in the void. “What’s this about me?”

“It’s alright,” Mario shakes his head, waving off his brother’s concerns. “We’re just discussing the new kid. He’s a bit shaky, just like you were when you started fighting.”

“Ah, Ness?” Luigi offers a nervous smile. “He’s nice! A good kid, if you want my two cents.”

Samus share the sentiment. “You’re not wrong.”

“Poyo!” Kirby nods in agreement, a wide, happy smile on his face. He sticks a first-place medal onto Samus’ armor, stretching out from Link’s arms. The blonde gives him a soft pat in return, Kirby softly babbling to himself.

“Well, what else do ya suppose we try?” Captain Falcon walks into the conversation from another rift. Pikachu is on his shoulder, nestling a second-placement medal. “The keed doesn’t realise he’s in a video game. We’ve got to tell him, somehow.”

The cast think to themselves, Fox nodding in agreement with the statement. Pikachu lets out a little chirp as they hop off the Cap’s shoulder, going over to Link. Kirby welcomes him to the cuddle pile, as the blond swordsman is buried underneath pink and yellow.

Luigi looks to Mario, concern flashing on both of their faces.

“...But at the same time, something feels off.” Fox turns to the aforementioned plumber. “Like… you know… something to do with the cartridge.”

Everybody looks at Fox in an instant. Kirby looks absolutely terrified at the suggestion, snuggling further into Link.

To his right, Fox sees Samus staring right at him, and feels an unspoken suggestion go by.

“Fox, it’s alright.” The plumber looks to the gathering around him. “Ness is a little more..._ slower, _maybe.” 

Mario stops for a moment, eyeing the unlockable characters. “It may take him just a little longer to first spawn here. That’s all.”

The cast chatter among themselves — Fox stiffens, but says nothing. Link silently shrugs in agreement, as Pikachu wanders over to Mario, dropping the second-place medal at his feet.

“Pika-pi?” He nudges the object, shooting a concerned look at the plumber.

Mario sighs, not unkindly. “It’s alright, you can give it to him later.” He smiles, yet bittersweetly, kneeling down and giving the Pokemon a pat on the head.

* * *

Everything is dark.

Unfeeling - he can’t feel anything. It’s just-- pure dark. All he can do is see, and all there is around him is darkness.

...Ness can’t remember when he fell asleep. Not recently. All he remembers is a castle, three other people, and being shot at - strong enough to the point of flying off into the sky, and then his whole being _ burned _with fiery-hot pain and then there was a voice--

_ “Breathe,” _ He tells himself, _ “breathe.” _

...Since when did Gigyas take over and pit him in literal _ hell? _

For a second, his surroundings flicker. A deep purple. Cubes, spheres, materializing and disintegrating. 

Then a horrible_ screeching _ noise, as if some kind of program just froze in place, and Ness screams. There’s the sound of something clicking in, coming from above, and a red _ light-- _

\--Everything is dark. 

Ness hears breathing, hyperventilating -- _ it’s his. _

_ “Help!” _ He shrieks, _ “Somebody help me!” _

_ I want to go home. _

_ Back to Onett. _

_ Back to my friends. _

_ Back to Mom, Tracy, Da-- _  
  
...Ness quiets down. 

He feels something. Something besides the tears on his face. _ Love? Adoration? _

_ ...Confusion. _

_ “Hey, who _ _ is _ _ this character, anyway?” _

In the distance, for a second, he sees a flickering hand. A polygonal, white hand, slowly dragging across the horizon.

_ “I’ll just go with Kirby instead.” _

The voice is gone.

* * *

“I’m telling you, the kids’ probably out there somewhere, confused and alone!” Fox snaps at the rest of the cast. “We can’t let this go on any longer!”

He presses a sharp-looking ice pack to his ear, a low whine escaping him. To his side, Yoshi holds a medal to his chest - another successful match! -, gurgling concernedly at the anthropomorphic animal.

JIgglypuff looks around at the small group - only she, Fox, Yoshi and Samus sit together.

“Look,” Samus speaks up, her visor flickering to show her sharp, textured eyes, “Some of us choose to automatically spawn here after a match, there’s no reason to suggest Ness just… _ doesn’t _spawn.” She tries her best, gesturing lightly with her hands. “It might just go... black for him. He might not even regain consciousness until the next match he’s in.”

“And if that was true, it’d still be a problem!” Fox groans. “Why aren’t you guys taking this seriously?!”

Jigglypuff and Yoshi share a look, huddling close to each other in fear of the two other fighters.

“Don’t accuse me of not taking this seriously.” Samus’ tone barely wavers, despite her words. “We only have a few rough ideas, and those involve serious damage to the code should we choose to go through with them.”

“Oh, so you already_ know _ the poor tykes’ stuck in the cartridge!” Fox mocks the bounty hunter, pointing a clawed finger at her. “Instead of making his way to the memory card, like everyone else, he’s stuck _ up there _possibly destroying himself!”

Yoshi lets out a small whimper at the thought. Samus catches his eye for a second, just before her visor flickers back to opaque.

“...You have no evidence to suggest Ness is in this predicament.”

“Oh boy, do I have news for_ you!” _ The anthropomorphic fox snarls venomously. “Let’s see, constant unawareness of his surroundings, being unable to spawn in the card hub, _ and yet he’s not stuck in the cart!” _He suddenly silences himself, taking in a deep breath.

He then sighs, his eyes cast downwards. “...I— I’m sorry. We can’t keep denying this. All of you know something’s wrong.”

Fox then looks back at Samus, his gaze piercing through her visor. “...And unless any of us are willing to risk further harm to the game and memory, to_ ourselves, _Ness won’t ever be able to be a part of this game.”

The armoured bounty hunter stares at him.

Then, she gets up, puts a hand to the side of her helmet, and materializes into nothing - all but little bits of polygonal particles being evidence that she was once there.

Jigglypuff looks to where Samus was, then to Fox, and her eyes well up with tears as Yoshi curls around her, the duo’s thoughts full of nothing but sympathy for the poor child at hand.

* * *

There’s faint flickers, sometimes. Of a dark, almost-transparent purple, that lights up and leaves streaks all over his vision.

It’s better than the darkness. The screeches of something, some piece of technology freezing. The red, circular lights that wake him from his ever-present sleep cycles, except it doesn’t feel like sleeping and Ness just really,_ really _wants to go home.

A bed. A baseball bat. A friend, or two, maybe three, names he remembers and then he_ can’t, please, please help me— _

Ness tries to scream. Tries to yell out, to cry, to do anything. But he can’t. Not anymore. He used to be able to, but now he just_ can’t. _

He’s frozen. Arms to his sides. He can’t even move anymore.

...The only times he can move is when he’s forced to_ fight. _

A jungle. A city. An interstellar planet.

_ ...Onett? _

...No.

There’s no place called Onett.

No object labelled “Onett”.

...No_ stage _labelled “Onett”.

...Stage.

Stage, stage, stage, stage, stage,_ stage, stage, stage, stage stage stage stage stage s _ ** _tage stage sTAGE—_ **

—A model. You are a model. You are a character in a video game, you are played with and fought by and loved and cherished and screamed at and pummeled and adored by…

...by…?

Ness hears something.

_ “...Alex,” _ The name comes to his lips, and suddenly everything starts flooding by and there’s someone, the bounty hunter, but she’s nice and kind and now all he sees are strings of things unreadable and unimaginable and it's so _ beautiful. _

“You’re alright,” Her voice cuts through his thoughts, and he’s in her arms and he’s_ sobbing, but he’s so happy and when you’re happy you’re not meant to cry, but it’s okay because— _“You’re okay now.”

_ “Will you take me home?” _ Ness manages to sputter out, _ “Back— back to Onett?” _

“Somewhere better,” She replies, and she jumps and there’s a rip and—

…

...There’s a void.

A purple, polygonal void.

_ The Memory Card, _The console tells him.

Samus, still with a tight grip on the boy, softly puts him on the ground, sighing in relief. She shakes her helmet off, revealing a long_ slab _resembling a ponytail that hangs off her hair.

“Mission accomplished,” She says to the now-full crowd of playable characters, their eyes comically wide in shock.

Ness looks around at everyone, at the shapes that float in the card’s memory, and as all their names flood in the last one hits him the most:

_ Super Smash Brothers. _

He adjusts his cap, and puts on a meek smile.

“Hi.” He nervously grins, and suddenly everyone is rushing towards him, yelling his name and giving him all the hugs in the world. Even a huge, cartoonish ape joins in.

_ “Pikachu!” _A yellow mouse-like creature sticks a second-place medal on his hat.

_ “Poyo!” _A pink, round ball with the cutest face imaginable literally attaches themselves to Ness, and he finds himself appreciating the gesture.

_ “He’s here! He’s really here!” _The first one to hug him, a fox that looks straight out of a cartoon he used to watch, shouts to the others.

And then Ness looks to Samus, who’s cooly watching over the situation. He gestures with the tilt of his head, and Samus rolls her eyes, yet not unkindly, as she too joins in on the embrace.

_ “Thank you,” _ Ness whispers to her among the shouting, and it manages to get her to _ smile. _

_ “It was nothing.” _ Samus whispers back, and Ness laughs and cries because _ everything finally makes sense. _

He’s a Smash character.

And he is_ loved _by all.

* * *

A group of four, on a floating island with a tree that somehow has a face, fight to the death.

Luigi runs away screaming from a giant thunderbolt, as Ness struggles in a fist-fight with Donkey Kong.

“Come on!” From beyond the world of Smash Brothers, Alex rapidly button-mashes the controller, hoping to avoid DK’s super ultra mega punch - which Ness does with ease, leaping from platform to platform. Poor Luigi gets caught in the brunt of Donkey Kong instead, flying off the stage at lightspeed.

“Pikachu!” The aforementioned taunts.

“PK Fire!” Ness quickly stops the yellow mouse’s fun, and swings his bat—

—And then the game pauses, Alex being called downstairs.

The three remaining fighters remain frozen, staring into the great beyond, a screen replacing a fourth wall.

“...Woah.” Ness speaks. “I never got a good look at this.”

Donkey Kong and Pikachu coo in agreement. From off-screen, Luigi can be heard shouting_ “tell me what it looks like out there!” _

Suddenly, Alex is back, and when they unpause the game, _ pow! _Ness basically flies off faster than the speed of sound, as DK takes him down with ease.

(Surprisingly, Pikachu ended up beating the ape with a well-timed thunderstrike.)

* * *

A third-place standing was good enough for Ness, as the bronze, polygonal medal glints under the tint of the Memory Card’s void. He smiles at it, and as he meets up with everyone again, it only grows wider.

“Ness!” Captain Falcon slaps him on the back, “You did great out there! What an inspiration.”

“Th-thanks!” Ness feels basically winded, but it’s okay because being welcomed by _ the _Captain Falcon is probably the best thing to ever happen to him.

...Well, besides regaining his self-awareness.

* * *

_ “So, basically, I was stuck inside the cartridge, when I was actually meant to ‘save’ to the memory card?” _

_ “Eh, it was just bad luck on your end.” Fox nods. “Usually, if a character gets stuck up there, it's hard to get them out, especially if the cartridge is taken out when the console isn’t being played with.” _

_ “...I see.” Ness quickly nods in succession. “And I guess it tampered with my memories…?” _

_ “Your awareness of the situation.” Luigi corrects. “I didn’t get stuck, per-say, but I’ve heard the stories.” _

_ “Ahh, okay!” Ness continues to nod. “It sucked being up there. It was super dark and I couldn’t move sometimes.” _

_ Luigi sends him a sympathetic look. “It even corrupts some of the cartridge’s ability to save. It was dangerous on both ends. It must have been terrible for you.” _

_ Fox shakes his head sympathetically. “Samus was braver than the rest of us. If it weren’t for her, you could still be up there.” _

_ Ness hums, and tries to forget the thought. _

_ “Well,” He smiles. “At least I’m here now.”_

* * *

“Congratulations!”

Suddenly, their celebrations are interrupted by a booming voice. The characters all get to their feet, Link with his sword drawn and Samus with her arm cannon at the ready.

Before Ness can even comprehend the sight, a giant _ white glove _descends down from the heavens, waving at everyone.

“Master Hand!” Captain Falcon is ever unintimidated. “What’re you doing here?”

The hand in particular grabs a letter with a bright-red stamp on it out of absolutely nowhere.

“We’re moving out to better hardware!”

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hiya! this fic’s very concept is technically two years old! oops :D
> 
> anyway i always liked the idea of characters in a video game being aware of their situation, and i always liked the idea of them *not* being aware, so here we are! i wrote this super late at night, as i usually do, so sorry if there’s any mistakes-!! ;w; 
> 
> either way i hope you enjoyed this weird lil thing i kept going on and off for about a month, hope you’re having a good day/night/etc! :3
> 
> (master hand knows where its at with fuckin smash bros melee on the horizon)


End file.
